Armstrong is back in fine Key-lovin form today:
Selling asset sales is a hard job even for Key
Such is John Key’s Midas touch, he could probably sell ice-cubes to Eskimos – and at a premium price.
Oh please. Did Key sell mining to the New Zealand public? No. Did Key manage to sell his position on s59 reform in the smacking referendum? That would be No. Did Key’s personal endorsement manage to sell Melissa Lee to the Mt Albert electorate? That would be a Hell No. Has Key sold Maori on the re-branded foreshore and seabed legislation? The Mana Party says No. Did Key sell Auckland on the Supercity merger, or Christchurch on CERA? Public opinion says No, but they were forced through any way. Did Key sell national standards to teachers, or labour market “reforms” to workers? See above, No. Did Key in his HardTalk interview sell our 100% Pure brand to the UK? Catastrophically No. Did Key sell his cycleway to the world? Hah hah No.
Key remains popular, it is true, but it’s very seldom that he manages to sell we the people something that we don’t want. His popularity depends on not picking fights with public opinion. The issues on which he does succeed – selling useless budgets, tax cuts for the rich and the GST swindle – are those where most of the public have little interest, or where the media do the sales job for him.
In short, Armstrong’s belief in Key’s “Midas touch” is a product of his imagination. He might do well to reflect on the true moral of the Midas story. In trying to acquire more and more wealth, Midas deprived himself of everything that really mattered.
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